Gen X Watch’s First Year & Future on the Past

In January I started an experiment. Use nostalgia as the vehicle to have important discussions about now and the road ahead. Would people want to take this deeper journey beyond memes about the past being awesome? You came and a lot has happened and more is going to happen.

The Idea

Nostalgia is comfort. The music and the movies and the clothes were sometimes our escape from what was happening in life. Some of us cranked up the music when our parents were yelling in the next room. We cannot forget or dismiss the noise we were driving out and if we see today’s generation drowning out some noise, we need to not focus on the airpods and the phone, but on their hearts. The younger generations are doing the same thing we were, the medium has changed.

This was the idea. And from our first article we showed there is a choice. We can be gatekeepers to joy, or we can facilitate understanding.

The Writers

Though I write most of the articles, I’ve found others. 5 other writers have submitted content with their own interpretations of the idea. Each one has had complete freedom to show their take on this idea. Each one has delivered beauty and introspections that have added to the readership and the beauty.

The Readers

Most readers read, maybe they like and share. But there are a precious few who become co creators in the idea and storytelling. In the comments on the articles and in social media you see so many heart warming and heart breaking stories. Each one is sublime, courageous, and makes a difference proving the idea and the experiment has validity.

But then there are readers who do something amazing. They join the Patreon page and support the idea. This allows us to to pay writers, buy tools, market, and build bridges.

The Collaborations

In this road has come collaborations. The collaborations has come technical advisors, artists, audio voices, how to make what we produce more accessible to all readers, publishers, editors, and other people who have been inspired by this vision and wish to move it forward and even incorporate it into their own world.

It is because of these collaborations in the background that we have grown in readers and clicks in all but 2 months. These collaborations have also led to audio versions of our Fem Friday Features and a 3 book series and short stores. But now it is time to talk about 2025!

2025

As with any new project, you have to be flexible and experiment with different ideas. The audience has to be considered in the content development. What do you respond to and not and how to we pivot to that without sacrificing core principals? If we look at what have been the biggest drivers in content and the audience speaking out and joining the conversation, there is a pattern.

You, the reader, love content that speaks directly about the vision with analogies rooted in pop culture. The talk of mental health and trauma is not something you are afraid of and add insights and even resources to the discussion when we are talking about nostalgia and trauma.

There is also what I call the level playing field content. Articles that focus on women, people with disabilities, and mental health concerns are values you share and are willing to step outside the black and white that we often see on social media and dive into the grey.

Finally, there are the objects and things. The mall, swatch watches, walkmans and shoulder pads all were strong articles for you. But they have to include history, import, and relevance to the core principles and other favorite topics to get you to talk about them.

Focus on the vision of nostalgia and trauma, leveling the playing field for others, and the things we did that matter now.

The algorithm prefers 3 articles a week, but with one columnist producing regular content at the moment, there will be 2 articles a week. Monday’s and Thursdays. Occasionally there will be “special editions” and “breaking news” but overall it will be 2 a week. This is about quality over quantity and allowing time for better engagement with Pareons and time to write the book series.

2 articles a week.

Over this last year our columnists have been award winning journalists, authors of multiple books, social workers, and amazing people who have no writing experience, but want to write in this space. You have never cared about the CV of the writer, you have welcomed them, and the shift of focus, with open arms and wondrous comments. Every time we have a guest columnist, their articles consistently make the top 3 most read of that month.

Part of that wonder is they are not micromanaged. Every columnist is told the main vision and are advised of the guard rails. After that, they have limitless freedom to follow their vision and idea.

This year I will be reaching out to those who have written for us and asking them to write more and hunting for new voices. When one of them does submit, the readers get more content. The goal is at least one column a month from someone else for 2025. At some point I would like to reverse that and only have one article from Pat Green a month, but it has to start somewhere.

One guest column a month (at least).

Fem Friday is still in existence, but it is no longer on Gen X Watch. More Fem Friday Features will be written, but it is now a collaborative effort with Gen X Watch and Tawnlandia. We will always announce and hype up the Fem Fridays, but there are reasons it is part of a collaboration.

I never want to fall into the Joss Whedon progressive nice guy trap. From my time in progressive Christianity when I was a minister I can tell you that overt sexism and rape culture is not as insidious as liberal progressive covert sexism and rape culture.

When an ally becomes popular as an ally, they sometimes forget their place as an ally. When you forget that you are there to support and not lead, shit goes south. Imagine a world where Pat Boone tells Martin Luther King to shut up and takes charge of civil rights. Sounds funny, right? But that is exactly some of what MLK touched on his letter from a Birmingham jail. White progressives and mainline liberal christian allies were trying to tell him how to conduct the advancement of black rights. I need a guard rail…enter Tawn.

Tawn’s collaboration not only adds audio, a new home, and a new audience to Fem Friday’s, it ensures the idea is protected from ego and being dependent on one person. Fem Friday has become important to too many women and friends beyond the binary.

Fem Friday has inspired a book trilogy. Many of the women and friends to the women in the most powerful Fem Friday Features are now being adapted into a book trilogy called Heart of Glass series. Heart of Glass Living in the Real World, set in the late 80s, now has a complete manuscript and is in post production.

This is not biographical, but seeped in the stories with important themes. In the creation of the first book, there has been consultancy with medical experts, experts in domestic violence, sexual assault, psychology and more to ensure that the story’s themes are represented accurately so that the people who have experienced certain things will relate and people who have not will have a better understanding of the impact. But the story is always most important. Between the 2nd and 3rd draft we had test readers, 3 of which are in the deaf community, to ensure the story is not only entertaining, but also moving and diminishes no one but celebrates all.

But the expanded universe? What is that about? in 2025 there will be short stories published in collaboration with Tawnlandia and Barnstorm publishing telling the stories of the “minor” characters. As a comic and sci fi/fantasy fan, a coherent world needs to be built for people to enjoy, and we are delivering that in a collaboration. In all cases the goal is to tell entertaining stories that speak on important themes, inspire people, and bridge generational gaps.

Why are there 3 test readers from the deaf community? One of the supporting characters is a profoundly deaf teenager. She is based on a real women. I had 2 choices in including her character necessary for the story. I could make her a hearing person, or I could keep her character as the person she is based on. But doing that involved writing about an experience I do not have.

I have multiple friends and, for a time, had a sister who was deaf, but I am not. I collaborated with creatives in the deaf community to ensure ASL communication and a character who has this experience was not only portrayed accurately without shitty tropes, but celebrated and showcased as the wonderful and powerful and delightful character Jenny is. I’m not going to be another ableist voice who writes trauma and disability porn expecting people with an experience to be grateful I misrepresented them. It is not only lazy, but disrespectful, arrogant and shitty.

Spring or Summer 2025 is when you can experience book 1 and fall winter is when you can experience book 2 with book 3 coming in 2026. In between releases people can enjoy the expanded universe in short stories set mostly in Aurora Illinois, Fox Valley Mall, and the late 80’s!

A crowd funding opportunity will be launching soon so you can be co creators. Why crowd funding? We want to get copies of the books into DV and SA shelters, we want to have paid ASL translators at every public event, and we want to give back to creatives with disabilities and find ways to amplify their voices to the general public. There is more so stay tuned.

Patreons make all of this possible. But in the crafting of the first book and trying to publish 3 times a week while having a full time job and a family has made me lose my balance. The Patreons suffered from lack of attention. There has been no Patreon growth the last six months and in the last month we lost some Patreons. I know half of those faced loss of income and other things, but the others? That falls on me.

Starting in 2025 the Patreons get one video a week from me and on social media will be shorter videos as well. They make this possible and they deserve exclusive content for their efforts.

Thank You and Happy New Year!

Thank you for being a part of Gen X Watch’s inaugural year and we look forward to more misadventures in 2025. Every read, patreon, collaboration, and comment means everything to me and this is a shared journey. Thank you for relating to this experiment and validating that deeper thoughts and ideas still matter in the age of memes and TLDR.

Stay totally awesome!

Stay true to you!

Please consider supporting us! If just 2% of you reading this help out, it could make all the difference. Please be the 2%

We rely on readers like you to continue our work. A few moments and you can make a difference:

1. Share this story with a friend and leave a comment.

2.  Tip us! We need your support!

3. Become a Members Only Patreon! In the Patreon we have a members only podcast and other goodies.

Thank you for your support and taking the time to read everything you have read this year!